Synthesis of valuable intermediate products from natural rubber under supercritical alcohol conditions
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2019
Abstract
In this study, thermal liquefaction of natural rubber was performed using different alcohols to produce valuable intermediate product. The experiment was conducted in autoclave reactor at different temperatures (250–375 °C), different solvent-to-natural rubber mass ratios (0.5:1 to 4:1), and at different reaction times (15–75 min.). The results showed the maximum liquid yield of 89.53 wt.% was obtained by using propanol at optimum conditions. Around 51.23% and 10.65% of liquid comprised of D-limonene and Isoprene respectively, which are being used as potential feedstock in different industrial sectors. Besides these compounds, the liquid product also consisted other hydrocarbon such as aromatics, alkyls, and alkene with high HHV (46 MJ/kg), and low oxygen contents (1.02%). These properties make this liquid suitable to be used for substitution the conventional fossil fuels. In addition, alcohol solvents played an important role to facilitate the liquefaction process by providing milder process conditions and hydrogen donor. Among the solvents, propanol has significant improvement on the liquid yield, solvent recovery and energy density. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
Keywords
Thermal liquefaction, Natural rubber, Intermediate product, Liquid fuels, Alcohols
Divisions
fac_eng
Funders
UMRG, University of Malaya through project number RP042A-17AET and through IPPP grant number PG074-2016A
Publication Title
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis
Volume
139
Publisher
Elsevier